Oz--Oz! more about Oz, Mr. Baum!

Cropped cover of The Emerald City of Oz by John R Neill. It is in the public domain.

This is the second in a series about the life of the author L Frank Baum and many of his books, mostly those about the Land of Oz. In "Following the Yellow Brick Road of Oz" we first set our feet on the magical and mysterious Yellow Brick Road. Some may have discovered for the first time that there was more than one Oz book. We learned that Dorothy returns to Oz and meet Ozma, the true ruler of Oz. We also explored L Frank Baum's life from childhood to South Dakota and Chicago.

In this article, we are going to continue to discuss the writer L. Frank Baum and his influence on children's literature. We are also going to continue to delve into some of the Oz books and meet more of my friends. I encourage you to take your time as you wander through this article. Feel free to step off the road to explore something that interests you. There are no time limits, no goals to meet. Meander and enjoy.

"It's no use; no use at all. The children won't let me stop telling tales of the Land of Oz. I know lots of other stories, and I hope to tell them, some time or another; but just now my loving tyrants won't allow me. They cry: "Oz--Oz! more about Oz, Mr. Baum!" and what can I do but obey their commands?"L. Frank Baum, Introduction to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

If you haven't read the first part of this exploration of the Oz books you can jump over there from here. Don't worry, there will be a link that will take you back here as soon as you are done. Shortcut Back to Part One

Dorothy and the ​Wizard in Oz

Jim the horse and buggy falling into the earthquake. Artwork, John R Neill, public domain.

The fourth book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, is another favorite. (I'm allowed to have more than one!) When we last saw Dorothy, she and her friends had just rescued Queen Ev and her family from the Nome King. When they travel back to Oz, Dorothy worries that Uncle Henry might be missing her. So Ozma uses the Magic Belt they had captured from the Nome King to whisk Dorothy off to Australia.

When this book begins, Dorothy and Uncle Henry have returned to the United States, but stopped off in California to visit some friends. Dorothy, on her way to meet Uncle Henry, gets a ride from a boy named Zeb, and a horse named Jim who is pulling a buggy. Dorothy is also carrying Eureka, her new kitten. It wouldn't be an Oz book if there wasn't some disaster. Sure enough, Dorothy, Zeb, Jim, the buggy and Eureka all fall into a crack in the ground caused by an earthquake. They fall a great distance and end up, not dead, but in the Land of the Mangaboos.

The Mangaboos are all made of vegetables and they grow on a vine until they are ready to be picked. They are most unhappy with these intruders whom they believe caused the "rain of stones" from above. To makes things worse, at least from their standpoint, a man in a balloon comes floating down from the world above. He is no other than the Wizard who used to rule over Oz.

Dorothy is back in fairyland again, and the horse and the kitten begin to talk. Eureka the cat is probably my favorite character. Imagine if your cat started to talk. The cat-like attitude would still be there, would it not? Throughout the whole story, Eureka's main goal is to to eat one of the nine tiny piglets that the Wizard uses in his magic tricks. They are small enough to fit in his pocket and, guess what, they can talk too!

After being chased away by the Mangaboos, the group encounters invisible bears and people, wooden gargoyles with wings, and a nest of dragonettes. When they finally get trapped and can't make it back to the surface, Ozma uses the magic belt to wish them all to Oz. That is not the end of the story, however.

Eureka in court, artwork John R Neill, public domain

Mischievous Eureka is put on trial for allegedly eating one of the little piglets. She deals with that without ever losing her superior cat-like attitude.

"Oh, cut it short," said Eureka; "you've talked long enough."

"I'm trying to defend you," remonstrated the Tin Woodman.

"Then say something sensible," retorted the kitten. "Tell them it would be foolish for me to eat the piglet, because I had sense enough to know it would raise a row if I did. But don't try to make out I'm too innocent to eat a fat piglet if I could do it and not be found out. I imagine it would taste mighty good."

Is she guilty or innocent? You must read it to find out. (And no, I don't know why the cat is wearing clothes)

Another World of Wonder classic that faithfully reproduces the rare first edition, including all sixteen color plates and all fifty black-and-white illustrations by John R. Neill, as well as the original colorful endpapers. These World of Wonder editions would make a great collection to hand down to your children and grandchildren.

Little Known Fact:Frank Baum actually never used the words, "Yellow Brick Road" in the Oz books. He usually referred to it as "the road of yellow bricks."

John R Neill, The Royal Illustrator

Dorothy as portrayed by John R Neill

John R Neill is known as the Royal Illustrator of Oz. (Frank Baum called himself the Royal Historian). After Baum and William Denslow parted ways, John Neill was commissioned to illustrate the Land of Oz. He was already a well known artist and already had so much work that he initially turned the offer down.

He eventually agreed, and went on to illustrate all of the remaining Oz books written by Baum. He also illustrated the books of Ruth Plumly Thompson who continued to write Oz books after Frank Baum died. Neill also wrote three Oz books of his own.

His unique artistic style has become synonymous with the Oz books. His grandchildren inherited his drawings and have offered them to for sale to collectors. You can view the collection at the John R Neill Gallery.

The Road to OzDorothy Meets the Shaggy Man

Dorothy meets the Shaggy Man. Artwork by John R Neill

At the end of the last book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, Dorothy once again wishes to go home.

"But Uncle Henry and Aunt Em need me to help them," she added, "so I can't ever be very long away from the farm in Kansas."Zeb and Jim also wanted to return home, so Ozma uses the Magic Belt one more time to wish them all home. The Wizard had decided to stay in Oz where he was welcomed warmly by his former subjects. One might wonder why Uncle Henry and Aunt Em ever let Dorothy walk out the door, given the fact that her disappearances cause them a lot of worry. So we shouldn't be surprised that in the next book, The Road to Oz, Dorothy goes on another adventure.

We can't really blame Dorothy. She did not cause the tornado, the storm at sea, or the earthquake. This time she simply offers to help a "shaggy man" find the road to Butterfield. He doesn't have any other name, just Shaggy Man. Toto surprises Dorothy when the shaggy man pulls him out of his pocket. Dorothy discovers that they are lost, and the road they were on has turned into a multitude of roads, spreading out in all directions.

"I've learned from long experience that every road leads somewhere, or there wouldn't be any road; so it's likely that if we travel long enough, my dear, we will come to some place or another in the end. What place it will be we can't even guess at this moment, but we're sure to find out when we get there." (The Shaggy Man,The Road to Oz)

They randomly pick one and set off down the road. On the way they find a lost boy named Button Bright and Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter. She was dancing on a rainbow and slipped off the end. The rainbow disappeared before she could climb back on.

This little group meets an assortment of strange creatures and have some narrow escapes. With help, they cross the deadly desert to Oz, where all of Ozma's friends are gathering for her birthday party. Many characters from Baum's other books show up, including Santa Claus and the Queen of Merryland.

Most of the guests returned home by way of magic bubbles created by the Wizard, but Dorothy decides to use the Magic Belt to take her and Toto home. I have to admit that I either didn't read this one or forgot all about it. The characters don't speak to me as do the ones in the other books. As it is part of the series, it too has a place in history.

There is something unusual about the book that might appeal to collectors. It is the only Oz book to be printed on colored pages instead of with colored pictures. As a result, all of the artwork done by John Neill are pen and ink drawings.to contrast with the colored paper.

A Dover Children's Classic reproduction of the original 1909 edition features 126 illustrations by John R. Neill.

Frank Baum's Spiritual Beliefs

L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz: A Biography by Katharine M. Rogers

Baum grew up in a devout Methodist family, but to his mother's consternation, he never accepted the doctrine of traditional religion. He could not accept the concept of the devil. In the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer in 1890 he wrote: "The absurd and legendary devil is the enigma of the Church."

He also stated, "The age of Faith is sinking slowly into the past; the age of Unfaith becomes an important problem of to-day. Is there in this a menace to Christianity? This unfaith is not the atheism of the last century. It is rather an eager longing to penetrate the secrets of Nature--an aspiration for knowledge we have been taught is forbidden." Baum was not an atheist and he did have deep spiritual beliefs. His mother-in-law, Matilda, was not only a women's suffragette, but also a Theosophist who had a strong influence on Frank and his wife Maud. In 1892 they joined the Theosophical Society.

It is difficult to sum up the concepts of Theosophy in this short space, so I will provide links to more information on the subject. Wikipedia defines it as "a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics. Theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Spiritual Hierarchy" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth."

In his own words in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, Baum wrote "Theosophy is not a religion. Its followers are simply "searchers after Truth."... The Theosophists, in fact, are the dissatisfied of the world, the dissenters from all creeds. They owe their origin to the wise men of India, and are numerous, not only in the far famed mystic East, but in England, France, Germany and Russia. They admit the existence of a God--not necessarily a personal God. To them God is Nature and Nature God."

In the L Frank Baum: Creator of Oz, a biography of Frank Baum by Katherine Rogers, she states "Theosophy was to influence the development of Baum's fantasies through its affirmation of a reality beyond the everyday visible world; its vision of a cosmos in which physical and spiritual reality were part of one great whole, filled with beings seen and unseen and governed by the same physical and moral laws of an all-embracing divine order. Baum's fairies and fairyland are so concretely realized because as a Theosophist, he believed they had spiritual or subjective reality. In his imagined world, which is not sharply distinguished from the world in which we live, divine or at least extraordinary presences are all around, many of whom devote themselves to watching over children and other living things."

Baum believed in the concept of reincarnation and karma. He stated that he believed he and Maud had been together in many previous lives. Although I am not a Theosophist, as a Wiccan I too believe in reincarnation and karma. I believe in the presence of other realities that we cannot see, but are real nonetheless. I do not believe in a devil and I believe that we are on earth in order to learn and to develop our spirits.

So I become quite concerned that some take Baum's beliefs and try to turn the books into something evil. For example, I reference an article called "Frank Baum and the Not-So-Wonderful Wizard of Oz." "Whatever Baum's actual beliefs may have been it is obvious from a look at his work that he was full of evil ideas, and he apparently made no pretense of being a Christian. His writings are boldly Anti-christ as we may see even from the title of the his main book, for Wonderful is one of the Lord Jesus Christ's proper names."

The article goes on to link almost everything in the book with almost everything else in the world they think is evil, including Masons, New Age thinkers and Mother Earth. I find this quote quite humorous. ﻿"The Wizard was bald, and James Hastings has noted that Egyptian priests shaved their heads to retain their "super-natural power."﻿ I might point out that many other priests shave their heads including Buddhists and some Christian monks.

But what most concerns me is the fear and hysteria that fantasy books often bring forth in the "true" believers. The same thing happened with the Harry Potter books. Throughout the years that the Oz books have been published, they have often been taken out of libraries as too being too "radical." The premise is that children will be forever scarred and corrupted by the reading of such books.

There will always be those who choose to see the evil in everything that does not follow their chosen path. Fortunately, there are many who are willing to open their minds to the possibility of other realities, and other ways of looking at the world. I, for one, am glad that Frank Baum had the courage to write about his beliefs and incorporate them into his delightful stories. Yes, I know that is a swastika on the seal of the Theosophical Society. But its meaning is much older than Nazism. For a complete description of all the symbols on the seal, go to The Theosophical Society International Headquarters.

Let's take a closer look at how these "evil" theosophists conduct themselves. Be sure to watch for the labyrinth, which I love to walk whenever I can.

Theosophy Links

These are some of the sources that I used for the above information, as well as more information about this complex subject.

The Emerald City of Oz

Wizard of Oz Wall Decal available at Amazon

﻿﻿"My, what imaginations these children have developed! Sometimes I am fairly astounded by their daring and genius. There will be no lack of fairy-tale authors in the future, I am sure. My readers have told me what to do with Dorothy, and Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, and I have obeyed their mandates. They have also given me a variety of subjects to write about in the future: enough, in fact, to keep me busy for some time. I am very proud of this alliance. Children love these stories because children have helped to create them. My readers know what they want and realize that I try to please them. The result is very satisfactory to the publishers, to me, and (I am quite sure) to the children."

As I suspected, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were quite worried when Dorothy disappeared so often. However, when she returned and told stories of where she had been, Uncle Henry thought she was a dreamer and had imagined all of these wild adventures.

Things had not been going well on the farm since the cyclone took the first farmhouse away. Uncle Henry had to mortgage the farm to build a new one. His health was getting worse and the crops were poor. They were soon to lose the farm to the bank.

Dorothy has an idea and gives the secret symbol to Ozma to be transported to Oz. She asks Ozma if Uncle Henry and Aunt Em could come to Oz to live where they would no longer have to work. Ozma agrees, and without warning, the couple find themselves standing in Ozma's throne room. Dorothy takes her aunt and uncle on a tour of Oz, during which she manages to get lost again (perhaps she should invest in a GPS!)

One of the towns she visits is named Bunnybury and is inhabited by rabbits. In one of those weird synchronicities that seem to happen to me all the time, I had just finished watching the movie Alice in Wonderland. When I got back to reading the Emerald City, I found this passage.

Artwork by John R. Neill and is in the public domain.

"Very well," she said, "I'll go in alone. I s'pose you're the King of this town, aren't you?"

"No," answered the rabbit, "I'm merely the Keeper of the Wicket, and a person of little importance, although I try to do my duty. I must now inform you, Princess, that before you enter our town you must consent to reduce."

"Reduce what?" asked Dorothy.

"Your size. You must become the size of the rabbits, although you may retain your own form."

"Wouldn't my clothes be too big for me?" she inquired.

"No; they will reduce when your body does."

"Can YOU make me smaller?" asked the girl.

"Easily," returned the rabbit. "And will you make me big again, when I'm ready to go away?"

Since Alice in Wonderland was published in 1865 and Emerald City of Oz in 1910, it is clear who borrowed from whom. We know Baum had read Lewis Carroll's books because he has written about them. So I wonder what caused him to write about this event which so closely mirrors Alice's adventures?

Dorothy and Spoons of Utensia Poster, Art by John R. Neill

If you like puns, you will enjoy the passage about the Kingdom of Utensia, a town where all the inhabitants are kitchen utensils. The King is discussing with his advisers what to do with Dorothy who was captured by an army of spoons.

"I'd like to smooth this thing over, in some way," said a flatiron, earnestly. "We are supposed to be useful to mankind, you know."

"But the girl isn't mankind! She's womankind!" yelled a corkscrew.

"What do you know about it?" inquired the King.

"I'm a lawyer," said the corkscrew, proudly. "I am accustomed to appear at the bar."

"But you're crooked," retorted the King, "and that debars you. You may be a corking good lawyer, Mr. Popp, but I must ask you to withdraw your remarks."

Concurrently with the tour of Oz, we learn that the Nome King is still angry about losing his Magic Belt. He devises a plan to tunnel under the deadly desert and attack the Emerald City from within. Realizing that the Nomes may not be strong enough to conquer Oz by themselves, he has his general enlist the aid of some other unsavory characters.

Ozma, with the help of the Scarecrow, pulls off a last minute rescue. Many readers have wondered why it took her so long to react to the danger. She then decides that Oz is too vulnerable to outside forces, especially with the advent of airships in the human world. Glinda casts a spell to make the Land of Oz invisible to the outside world and closes it to any new visitors.

Despite what he said in the preface, it appears Baum announced that this would be the last Oz book. But perhaps not...

Emerald City Collectiblesfrom Amazon

Jim Shore The Wizard of Oz Emerald City Trinket Box

Emerald City 100mm Musical Water Globe

Wizard of Oz Emerald City Rotating Mini Figurine

More Oz Websites to Enjoy

You Can Get These Books For Free

You can read all of these books for free. They are available as free e-books at Amazon,com and there are several places where you can read them on-line or download them to your computer. I still recommend getting a hard copy of the book with illustrations if you plan to be reading it to a child. The pictures are a big part of the story.

Literature.org - The Online Literature LibraryOn this site you will find the full and unabridged texts of classic works of English literature. I used this site a lot while researching for these articles as it is very easy to read.

We Haven't Reached the End Yet

We have come to the end of another chapter in the saga of L Frank Baum and the series of Oz books. There is so much more to tell that I must write another chapter called Can Toto Talk? Interesting Tidbits from L Frank Baum’s Oz Books. There we will review several more books and meet the Patchwork Girl, the Glass Cat, and find out more about Tik-Tok, learn why Toto doesn't talk, and more

We are also going to discuss L Frank Baum's dark side. Yes, there is some unpleasantness ahead, but be brave, we will get through it together. As one unusual Oz character says, "Friends must stand together, you know, or they wouldn't be friends."

If you have come this far with me, I thank you and encourage you to leave your thoughts on the blog post "Growing Up With the Oz Books"which is dedicated to this series. I hope to see you on the next section of the Road of Yellow Bricks.

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